Consider who might be seen as not only outsiders but enemies of the good of the community in our time. It might be those involved in drugs, gangs, the gay community, ex-prisoners, prostitutes, gamblers, etc. Nothing that Jesus did indicated approval or disapproval of the centurion’s life.
Picture the impact of the Body of Christ demonstrating that same sense of God’s grace. Consider the impact of even praying for such people on a regular basis in worship. Consider also the likely resistance of the larger community to such acceptance and you have some sense of the cost of loving one’s enemies.
Demonstrating the forgiveness of God is not a comfortable form of the mission of the church. Yet the more the church is capable of exhibiting that love, the more it is demonstrating the reconciling love of God. This is a living out of Paul’s admonition, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21) It is trusting that good contaminates evil rather than the reverse.
